Christmas countdown: Craftapalooza coming on Dec. 7

One particular day this holiday season - Dec. 7 - is building to become a mass convergence in Anne Arundel County of people who have mastered the use of hot glue guns, lathes, knitting needles and the like.Like the Weather Channel's naming of winter storms, it begs for a moniker. We have dubbed it "Craftapalooza."You won't need to drive far to find a craft fair taking place on Dec. 7. Some are pure craft fairs, meaning it's all handmade items for sale. Such is the case with the Glen Burnie High School 30th annual winter craft fair.Only crafters participate, and there will be 130-plus scattered about the campus at 7550 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd., from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., selling everything from framed pressed flowers and wooden puzzles to artisan soaps and Ravens and Orioles painted glassware. The school's music program benefits from the event and will be selling food for shoppers to refuel.No one needs to go hungry during Craftapalooza - Odenton's St. Joseph Catholic Churchyouth group's craft fair runs from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Corrigan Hall at the church, 1283 Odenton Road and they, too, will serve up lunch along with a hall packed with crafters.Craft fair dining gets a little fancier up in Linthicum at the General Federation of Women's Club, Woman's Club of Linthicum Heights. A feature of its annual Holly Mart is a sit-down $12 luncheon at 12:30 p.m. that requires reservations. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Linthicum Heights United Methodist Church, 200 School Lane, and puts the "palooza" into Craftapalooza by offering a gingerbread house activity for kids and a change to meet with Santa. For luncheon reservations, call 410-694-0043.Some organizations combine the craft sale with other events and indicate they have upped the ante by renaming it a "bazaar."Such is the case in the Jenkins Memorial ChurchLadies Aid annual cookie walk and bazaar. The Pasadena church at 133 Riviera Drive will serve breakfast and lunch foods beginning at 8 a.m. to go along with the crafts being sold until 2 p.m. But the focus on handmade here is on the Christmas cookies people can purchase and pass off as if they had worked all day in their own kitchen making the traditional treats.Unlike Black Friday, Small Business Saturday or Cyber Monday, the one thing you can be sure of when venturing out on Craftapalooza is that a nonprofit is benefiting from the event. This is surely the case in St. Martin's in-the-Field Episcopal Churchannual Christmas bazaar from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event at the church, 375 Benfield Road in Severna Park, supports Serving People Across Neighborhoods, Sarah's House and Hospice of the Chesapeake.Note the keyword - bazaar - denoting that, along with more than 35 local crafters, there will be homemade baked goods, candy wreaths, holiday greens, white elephant bargains and lunch and snacks sold, too.There are more out there - so many you may have to synchronize your watches and split up to make the most of it. We suggest you take your own shopping bags and plenty of cash for those who can't take credit cards. To plot your travels, look for the event listings beginning on Page 9 in today's Holiday Gift Guide insert or hop online and visit our calendar at MDGazette.com.